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Security at the USA Embassy in Riyadh

 
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framentdavid



Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 4:55 pm    Post subject: Security at the USA Embassy in Riyadh Reply with quote

I am an American citizen and I have the right to be treated with courtesy and respect at my own embassy. I think I also have the right to be understood IN ENGLISH.

These �local� security guys who may or may not allow you inside are rude, crude, arrogant, short-tempered, impatient, ill-mannered, unresponsive, and THEY DON�T SPEAK ENGLISH.

I don�t mean �a few good men� (or women) who guard the Embassy inside. These are all American. And I don�t mean the new security service, hired to protect American Embassies abroad. These people are all Westerners. I mean the local security guys. If they do allow you, it�s with reluctance, rudeness, and sometimes downright nastiness.
These people are terrible. When entering, they don�t so much say, as they mumble, �BE!.. BE!...� This means, �Take off your belt.� Or, �Wa�!! Wa!!!.. (�Remove your watch.�) I�m sure it�s only because of the indignity. Of the 300 times or so I have entered the embassy, 150 of them, they don�t say anything. Of the remaining 150, 100 times the electronic sensor buzzes, and they don�t bother �wand-checking� you. Of the other 50, the sensor doesn�t buzz, and they wand-check you anyway. If you take in a briefcase with only papers, they make a very big deal out of telling you that you have to send it through the X-ray machine. As it goes through, they �study� it. Carefully. At the other end, they take out each piece of paper and �read� it. Then they put all the papers back and more or less grunt, �Mahfee!! No!!�
Me: �What do you mean?�
Security Guard: �No allow!! No allow!!�
Me: �Then why didn�t you just say that in the first place?�
SG:�..(no response)
Me: Could you tell me when American Citizen Services is open?
SG�.(no response)
They never answer any question, they never repeat anything, and their manner is abrupt, curt, and just plain rude.

I have known these guys for a number of years, some of them on a first-name basis. At social functions, at the US Embassy or other places, I try to broach the subject of, �Why are you so, you know, �like that� to people coming to the Embassy?� Their answer is something along the lines of, �Well, you know� �these people�. They�re Bedu, they don�t know how to act, and they�re like, uncivilized people.�
This is really a poor excuse. I work with Saudis, I work for Saudis, and I live with them. �They� are not all Bedu, and their behavior at the American Embassy especially, in the Immigrant Visa Section, in the American Services Section, and in the Consular Section, is decidedly �hatdther� (urban, city-dwellers---it�s often interpreted as �educated�).
.
If you were a French citizen going to your embassy in Beijing, would you expect to have Bangladeshi guards at the gate??!! If you�re Thai and you visit your embassy in Istanbul, would you have Pakistani or Indian security personnel, who don�t speak Thai or Turkish, deal with you??!! I think you would have local security who speak the language of the country in which the embassy is located (believe me, these guys DO NOT speak Arabic), or who speak the language of the country represented. And these guys certainly DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH.

Did I mention that THEY DON�T SPEAK ENGLISH?

I�m sick and tired of this treatment and I really can�t understand why more people don�t complain. The Embassy web site is not very helpful. Does anyone know the name and position of the supervisor who is in charge of these guys?
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 5:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why don't you complain to one of your representives in Washington ? You do have representative government don't you ? I mean wasn't that what all that business in the 1770's with King George was about ?
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cassava



Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 175

PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most embassies employ local personnel in security posts. It is quite easy for framentdavid to find out the e-address of the American official responsible for hiring such people by accessing the relevant US website. Ranting and raving on an ESL website is not a solution. On the contrary, this kind of communication is puerile and doltish at best.
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veiledsentiments



Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA

PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is typical of the US embassies around the Middle East. Invariably you are treated like an intrusion into their more important real lives... and this is your fellow Americans. Usually the local guards are more polite and helpful that the supposed 'government servants' whose salary is paid by tax dollars.

It was like this pre-911 and it appears that things have become worse...

Good luck getting any response from the State Department... they couldn't care less...

It is marginally related to EFL as an American shouldn't head overseas to the Gulf expecting one's embassy to be at all helpful or even polite...

VS
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007



Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 2684
Location: UK/Veteran of the Magic Kingdom

PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:17 pm    Post subject: Re: Security at the USA Embassy in Riyadh Reply with quote

framentdavid wrote:
I am an American citizen and I have the right to be treated with courtesy and respect at my own embassy. I think I also have the right to be understood IN ENGLISH.

I think all citizens whatever their nationality, race, colour, ethnicity, have the right to be treated with respect and dignity. Unfortunately, this principle is absent in SA. So, don�t be shocked you are in the magic kingdom.

Quote:

I have known these guys for a number of years, some of them on a first-name basis. At social functions, at the US Embassy or other places, I try to broach the subject of, �Why are you so, you know, �like that� to people coming to the Embassy?� Their answer is something along the lines of, �Well, you know� �these people�. They�re Bedu, they don�t know how to act, and they�re like, uncivilized people

In general, the Saudis who work as porters, security guards, and low ranking in the military, are in fact bedus and most of them do not read and write, so you can expect from them anything, and sometimes they are very crude and they do not have the skills of proper security men.

But, the problem is not with these Saudi security guards, the problem is with the US embassy itself, why in the first place they have hired these people?
I wonder if you have been so long in Saudi? I wonder if you remember what happed to the US consulate in Jeddah some years ago when it was attacked by a loaded car with explosives, and some of the security guards were injured and killed. And it happened that all the security guards were only Sudanese and Saudis, and not US personnel!
Quote:

Does anyone know the name and position of the supervisor who is in charge of these guys?

I think the only person who can help you in this regard is her �Excellency� Condoleezza Rice , the US state secretary, she is responsible for the US embassies in the world. Why not write a complaint to her?
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Cleopatra



Joined: 28 Jun 2003
Posts: 3657
Location: Tuamago Archipelago

PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
These people are all Westerners. I mean the local security guys.


So what you're saying is that you have no problem with non-Americans working at the US Embassy, so long as they're white? It's the Indians and Pakistanis you object to?
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BajaLaJaula



Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 267

PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

maybe they don't feel quite up to being polite and cheery...because they realize that they are there to stop bullets for americans.
extra pay might help with the attitude....but I doubt it will do much.
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Queen of Sheba



Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 397

PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 6:25 pm    Post subject: Re: Security at the USA Embassy in Riyadh Reply with quote

framentdavid wrote:
I am an American citizen and I have the right to be treated with courtesy and respect at my own embassy. I think I also have the right to be understood IN ENGLISH.

These �local� security guys who may or may not allow you inside are rude, crude, arrogant, short-tempered, impatient, ill-mannered, unresponsive, and THEY DON�T SPEAK ENGLISH.


Now you know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the stick. For years Americans, white Americans, have ridiculed and mocked people of other nationalities, faiths and origins, even IF they are American. By the way did I mention that white Americans ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH.

Why not tell your "friends" at all those embassy social functions you attend that those officers are officiating a little too much?
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